For Confidential Free Advice Call Now 020 7504 1300

Received a Winding up Petition and need help to defend the action?Call for free defence advice on020 7504 1300

STOP WINDING UP PETITION PROCEEDINGS

Have you received a creditors winding up petition?

If your company has been presented or threatened by a duress creditor with a winding up petition you must act quickly and without delay. Contact us now because we can help to save your business and livelihood.

A creditors winding up petition is a very serious legal instrument and must be attended to immediately in order to prevent adverse consequence. The winding up petition is a short legal process that compels a company into compulsory liquidation through the court.

The first critical 7 days

The winding up petition against your company must be dealt with as a matter of utmost urgency. The first 7 days after having received the winding up petition is very critical. Any delay in successfully dealing with the winding up petition in that time can immediately result in very serious and disastrous consequences for the company.

Winding up petition being made public

If not dealt with immediately the winding up petition presented against your company can be made public any time after 7 days, therefore made available to all interested parties such as your bank, lenders, HM Revenue and Customs and your other creditors generally.

Preserve the company's assets

Upon presentation of the winding up petition your company is prohibited from reducing any of its assets without obtaining leave from court. This means no payments to any creditor, no matter how much or for what reason, or disposal/reduction of your company's assets. Any contravention of this prohibition may be subject to further proceedings, which may be against you personally.

Company's bank accounts frozen

Usually your bank will be the first party to be informed your company is subject to a creditors winding up petition. Once your bank has been informed it has a legal duty to protect the company's funds from being dissipated and will immediately and without notice freeze all the company's bank accounts held. This action will usually bring about the swift demise of your company.

Supporting creditors

Once HM Revenue and Customs is informed of the winding up petition presented against your company it is their usual practice to join the same petition as a supporting creditor. This action by HM Revenue and Customs will prevent the winding up petition from being withdrawn by the creditor or dismissed by the court. Also, other creditors may follow in line with HM Revenue and Customs and support the winding up petition. This means for the winding up petition to be withdrawn or dismissed and your company to be saved from compulsory liquidation the petition debt, and the supporting creditors debts will have to be fully satisfied including related legal costs. This option is usually unachievable for most debtor companies and may be for your company too.

Proceedings against directors

Also, directors will need to be very careful about their actions for the period leading up to the presentation of the winding up petition against the company and up to the court hearing date.

Directors conduct in this period will come under close investigative scrutiny by the liquidator should a compulsory winding up order be made.

Any subsequent investigation resulting from a complaint usually by HM Revenue and Customs, a creditor or insolvency practitioner or official receiver could lead to section 212 misfeasance proceedings being brought against you for misconduct during the course of the company's winding up. This is usually when directors have moved, transferred or sold the company's assets after presentation of the winding up petition.

Even transactions prior presentation of the winding up petition such as preference to another creditor or transactions made at undervalue. Such actions may result in director disqualification proceedings or worse.

We can help you

Our invaluable experience in dealing with creditors winding up petitions and the movement of assets and other property means we can certainly help to save your business. Contact us now and be sure to benefit from our expertise. Let us help you now before it is too late.

Adjourned Winding-up Petition Hearings

In most cases it is possible to obtain an adjournment of a first hearing to wind-up the company and usually for subsequent hearings depending what the circumstances are and the representations made by instructed barrister. In such instance we are can advise how best to obtain an adjournment.

If an adjournment is required it is always best to take action immediately so that the appropriate representations can be prepared for instructed barrister. The instructed barrister s are all experienced with insolvency matters before the courts, especially winding-up petitions and obtaining adjournments.

Prevent Advertisement of a Winding-up Petition

Upon receiving a winding up Petition It is vital you act quickly if you wish to continue to trade as a business, an application can be made to the high court with supporting evidence and then with representation by a barrister you can seek to have the petition hearing adjourned.

A respondent company with a winding-up petition will have a limited time (7 working days from service of the petition) to apply to the issuing court for injunctive relief, which is an order that retrains the petitioner from advertising or giving notice of the petition’s existence to any third party.

In order to benefit from injunctive relief the respondent company must first satisfy court on some key points concerning the petition. These key points must be carefully thought out and prepared using substantive evidence in the form of a witness statement/s and exhibits to support the application for injunctive relief.

It will be necessary for a barrister that is experienced in obtaining injunctions in insolvency matters be instructed to on the company’s behalf to make the persuasive instructions before the appropriate court. However, to benefit from an injunction immediate action is required, literally.

Petition Debt Paid £14,442

Print Run has used the services of Insolvency and Law on two occasions in the last year. Initially the whole process of issuing a winding up petition appears to be daunting, especially for a small fish in a big sea when taking on large companies, but Peter Murray and his team made the job easy and totally seamless.

Petition Debt Paid £26,717

We were owed £26,717 by one of our customers and our credit control efforts, which had included a County Court Summons, were exhausted so we looked for third party assistance and came across Insolvency & Law on the internet. After a first conversation with Peter Murray I was left feeling confident that there was indeed hope through the debt recovery services provided by I&L.

Petition Debt Paid £41,767

I&L recovered the full amount of the invoice and all my costs in issuing the Winding up Petition including the cost of the barrister Peter appointed who did an excellent job when my case went to the Companies Court.